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Avg. Rating: 3.36
Red October, where for-art thou?
This Tom Clancey book is about John Clark and Ding (from Clear and Present Danger) setting up an new international task force. Concerned mainly with anti-terrorism. Various scenarios ensue, building up their image of competence, and gradually introducing the main plot elements. It starts pretty well, but the last 200-odd pages, out of 897 in my softback, start to drag and annoy. I am not sure if he decided he had to wrap things up, or got sick etc, but the effort just doesn't seem the same. I like Clancey, really I do. But Rainbow Six suffers in too many departments. I can accept the plot, it might be _possible_ for a private corp to develop a virus secretly. I can accept the formation of a NATO anti-terrorist group. But what really bugs me is the way the "bad-guys", who are obviously smart from their setup plans, loose their brains once the ball gets rolling. Other people have mentioned inconsistencies, Clancey's right-wing views, and technical faults. This I can accept, but not the unreasonable reasoning of supposedly smart characters. Buy the computer game instead, it's a little old now, but is a brutal and more entertaining education on anti-terrorist units.
Certainly a page-turner
I very much enjoyed reading this book. After reading "Without Remorse", I picked up this book and rarely put it down. I would recommend this book to any reader, especially those who enjoy the action portions of Clancy books more than the political.
Clancy's finest work in years!
In RAINBOW SIX, we see the return of John Clark as the lead character in a typical heavy, meaningful plot that Clancy has done on a level above any other author for many years. The theme of the book, and the video games that have followed, is a multinational counter-terrorism unit called Rainbow, with John Clark running the show. One reviewer stated that this is the typical "Americans are the best..." plot, but it's really not. Rainbow is formed by members of several countries, including the United States, England, Germany, and Israel. It's not just a United States dominated unit.From the opening pages on, Clancy paints a brilliant picture of life on Earth in a post-9/11 world...and then you realize that this book was written and published in 1998! The ability that Clancy has shown to be ahead of his time in his plots is just another example of his brilliance. This is reflected again in an earlier Clancy novel, DEBT OF HONOR, from 1996, where in the climax we read through a scene frighteningly similar to the events of 9/11/01. RAINBOW SIX, while thick at 740 pages, is really a fast read. Clancy interweaves multiple storylines and more than a handful of characters into an overall story that truly has you thinking about the world around you by the time you finish. With action sequence after action sequence, the book rarely hits a lull and keeps you enthralled to the point that you're disappointed to set it down. One nice part of it all is that the book shows that there are left-wing extremist crazy people out there too...all the insane ones aren't right-wingers as most in the media will lead you to believe. Great books make you think. With that in mind, RAINBOW SIX is a great book by one of the greatest authors of our time. Now...let's get that movie into production.
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